‘You’re watching ESPN 8 — The Ocho’…wait, what?
Aug 3, 2017, 2:26 PM
The 2004 film Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story gave the world a few things.
OK, no it didn’t, but it does have a bit of a cult following more than a decade later.
It’s built around the story of Peter LaFleur, a small gym owner who enters a team of misfits into a dodgeball tournament in hopes of winning prize money to save his gym. Conveniently, (spoiler alert) his team faces a team from the evil conglomerate GloboGym, led by White Goodman.
Hey, it’s not deep, but if you shut your brain off for 92 minutes, you might have some fun.
One of the lasting jokes from the movie is that the dodgeball tournament is televised by ESPN 8, “The Ocho” — a reference to the seemingly ever-growing family of ESPN networks and the obscure sports they tend to televise.
It’s not a joke anymore.
August, 8 (get it? 8/8), ESPNU will become “the Ocho.”
ESPNU turning into "ESPN8: The Ocho" on August 8. pic.twitter.com/JZsbSumSsT
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 3, 2017
From the official ESPN release:
For one day only, the faux network will feature a line-up of unconventional sporting events ranging from Disc Golf to Ultimate Trampoline Dodgeball and Firefighters World Challenge playing off the mantra highlighted in the movie: “Bringing you the Finest in Seldom Seen Sports”.
